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Monday, February 7, 2011

February 5: Earthquake(?) and Green Buddha!

“Chris, are we having an earthquake?” It was just before 11am, I was curling my hair in the bathroom and Chris was sitting on the coach. I was leaning against the bathroom counter and I began to feel the counter move and hear the soft creaking sounds of it. I looked to the towels and they were swaying ever so slightly. Sure enough, east of us in the ocean there was a 5.3 quake.

We decided to go to Kamakura! We decided not to do the couple hour walking tour that would lead us passed and through shrines and temples until arriving at the Buddha. Instead, we took a train that dropped us about 15 minutes away. We both felt we shouldn’t overdo it. On a side note, we’ve learned that this cough is going around, that is kind of reassuring.

On our way to Daibutsu, ‘Great Buddha,’ we saw some green and purple soft-serve ice-cream. Everyone else seemed excited about it so we wanted to try it too! Guess the combo, green tea and sweet potato! Sounds odd, but we really enjoyed it!

There were a lot of little knick-knack shops, but my favorite looking one was filled with beans!

We also saw a lot of these cats! They are everywhere here and according to Wikipedia a raised left paw supposedly attracts money, while a raised right paw protects it.

As we were finishing our cones outside the entrance of Kotoku-in Temple we saw a man that had to be close to 8’ tall. He rode off on a bicycle.

The bronze Buddha was constructed in 1252 A.D and stands 13.4m (about 44ft) high. The Buddha was originally constructed out of wood in 1243 but was damaged five years later by a storm. I loved the Daibutsu, he was extremely beautiful and elegant. For a few cents we were able to enter inside the Buddha.

(I gave Chris a hard time when we got home about saw how he didn’t get all of Buddha into the photo. )

(The circle between Buddha’s eyes is 26 pounds of pure silver. The Buddha is believed to emit rays of light from here to illuminate all the worlds in the universe.)

(Inside Buddha)

(Buddha’s shoes)

After Kamakura we got off at a station near Daiei mall. We walked through a lovely waterside park that faced the base.

(US Destroyer, according to searching USS 85 on Wikipedia)

We stop at base to drop off some movies and then we went to dinner at the sushi-go-round. For dessert we stopped at the bakery, well two bakeries.

5 o’clock felt like midnight to us tonight. We grabbed a taxi from Kitikurihama for the mile trip up hill to home. The taxi we had was the swankiest I’ve ever been in! At first I didn’t think it was one we could take because it was so nice. Inside there was a TV in the dash and the drive was watching a Japanese soap opera. I tried to take a picture, but I was also trying to be sneaky so it didn’t come out. He was totally watching it while he was driving though.

Tomorrow is going to be a rest up day. Next weekend is Saporro! But need to plan out the following weekend. There is a hotel in Tokoyo that is very nice that Chris gets at a very low price so we’re going to see if that is even the slightest option. If not then, then hopefully at least once before we go!